Recently I was fortunate enough to see both Black-bellied and Pintailed Sandgrouse in the wild in Spain. On Zootierliste the only sandgrouse in Europe in a zoo are in Spain, with Pintailed Sandgrouse listed at el Escorial. I have found a reference to captive breeding of Black-Bellied Sandgrouse, and given their seed based diet they do not sound a species that would be impossible to maintain, so I was wondering the reason they appear so rare in captivity. Are there any in the US or Asia?
Zoo Miami has them in a smallish aviary in the Africa section, but I'm not sure which species. That aviary is divided into two halves. The half the sandgrouse is in also includes a magpie shrike, a bustard, and an African hornbill (don't recall the species for either), and I think a fifth species of bird I'm forgetting (I was too excited by the sandgrouse and magpie shrike.) The other half includes Livingstone's turacos, blue-naped mousebirds, and some sort of fowl that I don't remember because I was too excited about the turacos (not all that uncommon but beautiful) and the mousebird (blue napes are very uncommon in zoos). I think that tiny aviary might be the single most underrated exhibit in the Miami Zoo.
Not quite the case, there's quite a bit more species kept in Europe. None of them are well-established, though. From ZTL, using their most recent figures: Pterocles alchata: 1,1 in Dresden, 3,4 in Akatovo, x,x in St.Primus Pterocles alchata alchata: x,x in El Escorial Pterocles exustus: 2,2 in Heidelberg, 2,2 in Dvur Kralove Pterocles exustus erlangeri: 2,1 in Antwerp, 1,2 in Prague Pterocles quadricinctus: 2,0 in Prague
Very intresting review of captive Sandgrouse-keeping and breeding : Sandgrouse, A Review | Dierick | AFA Watchbird
